Marketing Ideas for Non-Profits and Libraries

Saturday, September 03, 2011

Target could teach us a thing or two ...

We often talk about branding libraries. " It's tough." "How can we differentiate ourselves?" We are always asked those comments and more. Sure it's tough. But think about what life would have been like trying to brand a box department store named Target 12 years ago. Because it was back in 1999 when Target hired Peterson Milla Hooks, Minneapolis as their ad agency. Before it become the highly stylized Target that we now know, it had been just another box store. They used the familiar "Target" logo but there was no real branding. Look at a commercial from before PMH came on board:

It could have been any box store.

In 1999 PMH creative director Dave Peterson decided to make the brand's bullseye logo the heart of an unabashedly playful campaign with a distinctive design sensibility. Target and its PMH have parted ways after an amazing 12 year success story. If you look back on their commercials over those years, fond memories will be rekindled. Peterson was a master storyteller. And the story he told? Ours. Here's that very first commercial: